Category: GMO

If you had to name the top four food and farming-related topics discussed on social media in the last two years, would cannabis top the list? Possibly, given the lead-up to changed legislation last fall, but would you have guessed climate change taking the second spot? A new study led by the Canadian Centre for… Read More

Canadians are set to celebrate Canada’s Agriculture Day February 12, with gatherings, conferences, celebrations, and sharing what’s happening on the farm. The day is all part of the “share our story” philosophy — that agriculture’s customers have simply lost touch with how food is grown and produced, and that if farmers share more, they’ll earn back… Read More

When it comes to Saskatoon, former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has not been seen much in these parts. In fact, except for the Saskatchewan Party leadership convention, he has not made a public appearance in Saskatoon since he retired as premier. When he showed up at a recent Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan event he… Read More

Much has changed on the Ontario soil conservation front since 1987. No-till farming has been firmly entrenched, most farms in the province now proudly tout their own Environmental Farm Plan, and soil health is recognized as key to a $13 billion food economy that fuels 800,000 jobs. It’s a 30-year journey that Harold Rudy captures… Read More

What do you do when two busloads of students come to your farm? Well, of course you welcome them, show them around, and feed them lunch. On a rainy day during harvest, students from Saskatchewan Polytechnic came out to the farm of Doyle and Val Wiebe near Langham. All of the farm equipment was lined… Read More

A professor from the University of Saskatchewan and his Master’s student are causing quite a stir ‘Down Under’ due to some startling revelations contained in a paper published by the two earlier this year. The paper explores the economic and environmental consequences of a moratorium that effectively banned all use of genetically modified (GM) canola… Read More

A recent report out of Ontario tells a good news story about the much beleaguered herbicide glyphosate. Put simply, the rumours are true — the massive move to herbicide tolerant (Roundup Ready) genetics in corn and soybeans in Ontario has drastically reduced the total amount of active herbicide ingredients applied per acre, even while corn… Read More

A fictional look at life without glyphosate in the year 2028. Due to pressure from consumers and decisions by the courts, glyphosate use has been banned in Canada and the U.S. Only three years removed from the complete ban of glyphosate, North American farmers are still dealing with the changes to their farming practices. The… Read More

What do you get when you connect two ‘city kid’ filmmakers, a world-class chef, and nine farmers and their families? You get Before The Plate, a genuine behind-the-kitchen-door, on-the-farm look at how food is produced in Canada, and the passion and commitment chefs and farmers apply to their craft. The driving force behind the film… Read More

A ruling by the European Union’s (EU) top court states that food produced by a series of new biotechnology breeding techniques, such as CRISPR, should be considered genetically modified organisms (GMO). This ruling means the specific food or food ingredient resulting from these gene-editing techniques falls under the EU’s strict regulations and restrictions on GMO. Any… Read More

Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan was launched in 2015 to foster conversations with people in Saskatchewan about food and farming. We recently had a chance to catch up with Clint Monchuk, Executive Director with Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan (FFCS). Farm and Food Care had its origins in the Food and Animal Council (FAC). When… Read More

Update, June 29: The CFIA has published its incident report on the discovery of unapproved GM wheat plants in southern Alberta. The agency says it determined it was an isolated case, with no wheat entering the food or feed system, but that it was unable to determine where it came from: “The CFIA in cooperation with… Read More

If the conversation around farming and food is really going to change for the better, we have to get past talking to each other and reach out to our customers. In writing her book, Food Truths From Farm to Table, author Michele Payn specifically chose consumers as her target audience to move beyond “preaching to the choir.”… Read More

Semex, a Canadian-based, farmer-owned cattle genetics company, and Recombinetics, a gene-editing company, have formed an alliance to bring hornless dairy cattle genetics forward through the use of TALENs technology. TALENs involves very precise gene editing that makes small adjustments to the genome of an animal to delete, repair, or replace individual elements of DNA. Because dairy cattle breeds… Read More

While consumer opinion is split on the health and safety of food and food ingredients derived from genetic modification (GMOs), the majority of Canadians support labeling foods that contain GMOs, according to a recent survey by Dalhousie University. Researchers at the university, led by Sylvain Charlebois, surveyed 1,046 Canadians in an effort to measure “attitudes… Read More